1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of personal computers and component parts thereof, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for monitoring and controlling the temperature of monitor devices, particularly liquid crystal display modules (“LCMs”) used in conjunction with certain personal computers. The predominant current usage of the inventive temperature sensing apparatus and method is in preventing problems related with overheating in portable computers, particularly but not exclusively in tablet type computer devices, wherein heat is a particular problem because certain heat producing components may be directly behind the LCM.
2. Description of the Background Art
Thermal management in computer systems, especially in laptops, is a very challenging issue. Many components, primarily the Central Processing Unit (“CPU”), the Graphics Processing Unit (“GPU”), the hard drive, the optical drive, and the LCM, generate heat during operation and contribute to a total thermal loading of the system. These same components are also very sensitive to high temperatures. The temperature on an LCM and/or a temperature gradient, can affect the display optical performance, including causing undesirable artifacts and non-uniformity in displayed images. The problem might look more severe when viewed in the mid gray levels and over wide viewing angles.
Of course, the designers of the LCMs do what they can to reduce the amount of destructive heat produced by the LCM. However, despite the fact that it has been known in the prior art that excessive heating of the LCM may cause problems, to the inventors' knowledge, there has not been a significant effort to try to control or otherwise insure that the temperature of the LCM, or portions thereof, do not exceed optimal temperature ranges while the LCM is in operation.
Prior to the present invention, it was thought that either the problems associated with heat in the LCM were not significant enough to address separately, or else the expense in additional parts, and the like, would make an effort to control the temperature of the LCM less than cost effective.
It is known in the art to incorporate temperature sensors in CPUs, graphics processor units (“GPUs”). hard drives, and battery packs. However, to the inventors' knowledge, for reasons including those discussed above, no such device has been included in, on, or in close proximity to an LCM module, or the like.